


library ghosts, or something like that

by the_nerd_youre_looking_for



Series: TMA Fantasy Week [5]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Curses, Fluff, Gen, Invisibility, Light Angst, Magic, TMA Fantasy Week, like so light u wouldnt notice, the power of friendship saves the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 23:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30029418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_nerd_youre_looking_for/pseuds/the_nerd_youre_looking_for
Summary: Sasha James was cursed a long while ago.She isn't sure why. Something about ambition, maybe, or hubris. That would make sense, and that's usually a good way to get cursed.It isn't so bad. Essentially, she's supposed to be a ghost. Invisible, vaguely intangible, and tied to one place. Why it couldn't be her home instead of the public library, she isn't sure. But worse things have happened.Sasha had needed to get used to it. To break the curse, she has to be "truly seen". And she has no clue what that meansPrompt: Curses
Relationships: Sasha James & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: TMA Fantasy Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2201430
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	library ghosts, or something like that

**Author's Note:**

> Sasha my beloved......
> 
> I was planning on writing something for yesterday, but I didn't have any good ideas so I just sorta gave up on it. Today and tomorrow, I have some pretty good ideas for so I should get them out! (plus it's the weekend and I won't have school or work sdhsjv)
> 
> Curse specifics don't matter it's fine. I don't think anyone is here for like accurate depictions of curses. It's about the friendship

There are worse places to be bound to by curse than the public library. 

Really, Sasha feels lucky she didn't end up one of those poor people who have to wander the woods or live in a well. She even heard one of her gym teachers got cursed in a dump, which served him right. He was always a bit of an ass. 

So, yeah, the library has been good to her. She doesn't do much there, just sort of hangs around and reads. She helps pick up after events and sometimes, if she's bored, she'll re-shelve books. The librarians and patrons have come to the conclusion over the years that it's just haunted by a very chill ghost, and mostly leave her be. 

It's sort of like that. The curse makes her invisible and mostly intangible. Sometimes someone will bump into her and it's a bit of a shock for everyone involved. But there are worse curses to have and worse places to be having them in, so Sasha really counts herself lucky. After all, it's only been about two years and she doesn't think there's many people out there to miss her, so it's fine.

It's definitely something she can live with. 

______

It's another day. Nothing out of the ordinary. Sasha is sitting against one of the shelves, reading a mystery novel she's read a couple times before. But she forgets how it ends, so it isn't really repetitive. She's just getting to an interesting part when she somebody trips over her legs. 

"What the hell?" They whisper. "If this is that 'ghost' messing around with me, I really don't appreciate it." They glared a few shelves above Sasha's head, collecting their fallen books. 

"Sorry." Sasha said, voice quiet from disuse. There's not much opportunity to talk to someone, and usually they just get scared. No point in it really. 

"Oh! You are real then." They mutter, crouching down and patting about where Sasha's legs might be. "Honestly, I thought it was just a story. Where are you?" 

"Right here." She wiggles her book around, and the movement catches the person's attention. "Technically, I'm not a ghost. Just cursed." 

"Oh. Nasty business, that." They sit across from her, somewhat in her leg room. "I'm Jonathan Sims. Jon, for short. You?"

This was new. She hadn't really had anyone try and talk with her in.....well, probably since she was cursed. "Sasha James." She held out a hand, on instinct. "Oh, whoops. I've got a hand out for a handshake, if you could....I don't know if you could touch me." 

Jon held out his left hand and shook the air on the other side of her, and seemed satisfied with that. "There we are. Why were you cursed?"

"To be honest, I don't know. Nobody told me about it, and one day I was just here." She shrugged. "I think it was something about pride. Couldn't tell you."

"I have a friend who got cursed because he broke up with someone and they got upset." Jon seemed very...casual about the whole thing. "So, who knows? Maybe I could help try and break it?" 

"What? Really?" Sasha felt her heart pounding. She'd never really let herself think of breaking the curse, because the rules for it were very....unhelpful. 'Find one who truly sees you' or something like that. Yeah, she had a couple theories, but in practice, how was she meant to even go about that? What were the rules for that? "How?"

Jon shrugged and glanced away, looking a bit embarrassed. "I, uh, I know a bit of magic. Not much, but maybe if we figured something out about this curse, I could give it a go."

"I've checked all the magic books in the place." She didn't mean to be a pessimist, she really didn't. She just didn't want to get her hopes up. "I haven't found anything. And the one bit of information I was given is _useless._ "

Instead of looking discouraged, Jon just smiles. "Well, you haven't checked every magic book ever. I've got some at my place, and I can always borrow from other libraries. I'll be back tomorrow to help." 

"You really don't have to. This is honestly kinda fine. It isn't that bad."

"Well, just because I don't have to doesn't mean I won't. Besides, it might be interesting to figure it all out." Jon stands up and shoots one last smile at Sasha, just a little to the left of her, and heads back off, turning back and giving an awkward little wave once he remembers he didn't say a goodbye.

Sasha isn't sure about it. Sure, she'd like to be uncursed. But what were the chances of it? She convinced herself Jonathan Sims wouldn't be back tomorrow. 

______

He was.

Sasha watched him sit down at one of the tables in the front of the library with a stack of books. He was waiting for her. Part of her didn't want to, but she did.

"Oh. That you, Sasha?" Jon asked, seeing the chair pull out. "If you're intangible sometimes, how can you move and hold things?"

"I'm not sure actually." She hadn't thought of that, but now that she was, she wanted to know just how. "I wonder....let me try something." 

Sasha reached out to tug at Jon's jacket sleeve and he lit up when he saw his arm being moved to the side. "Do you think it's a....a will type thing? When you want to pick up a book or something, it works? Some curses work around that type of logic. It's all really convoluted sometimes, in how simple it is." 

She felt herself smile at his enthusiasm. "Yeah! Sure seems like it. Explains why I can't go through walls or anything, even though I technically should. I believe I shouldn't be able to, so I don't!"

"Could the whole curse be like that? If you...if you believe you shouldn't be invisible and tied here, would that work?" Jon picked up one of his books and started skimming it, as if looking for a certain section. 

"I don't...think so. Give me a second." Sasha closed her eyes and thought, very hard, of what she looked like before she was cursed. Round glasses, long dreadlocks, a gap between her front teeth, tall enough to almost tower over Jon. When she opened her eyes, she was still invisible and Jon's eyes were still somewhere around her neck. "Yeah, guess not. Damn." 

"They never do have easy answers, do they." Jon muttered, going back to his book. "Well, then it'll be something else. Let's get cracking, then." He pushed a book towards her and well. What else could she do but read it?

They didn't find anything that day. Or the next. Or over the next two weeks. 

______

"Wait, I just had a thought." Jon sat up like he'd been shocked, shutting his book with a snap. 

"That's new for you." 

"No, really. I remembered you said you got some information about the curse, but didn't tell me." He leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table. "What was that?" 

Sasha sighed and shut her own book. She was just re-reading one of the ones she'd already dismissed as having nothing. Just to do something. It was nice, hanging out with Jon. "I don't understand it and it could mean pretty much anything." 

Jon rolled his eyes. "You never know with these things. Logic only applies where and when it wants. Sometimes it's best to just go with a gut feel on it."

"Something about how I have to find someone who 'truly sees me', whatever that is." She rolls her eyes. "I honestly don't even know how I know that. Is that a regular curse thing?"

"Yeah, yeah, usually you get some knowledge of how to break it." Jon nods along. "But that's easy enough. You just need someone who knows you for who you really are."

"It cannot be that easy."

"Probably is." Jon shrugs. "So, um. Any family, friends, partners in the area?"

"Um..." Sasha has to think on that one. She never really came out to her family, so that one's a bust. Hadn't really dated around. No very good friends. "Not really."

"Ok then, we can do it with me." Jon closes his book and puts it onto the stack. "We can do Twenty Questions."

"Are you kidding me." It came out harsher than she wanted. "Just...what, just now? Just like that?"

"No time like the present." Jon drums his fingers on the table. "So...any siblings?"

"This isn't how you play Twenty Questions."

"Alright, Ms. Rulebook. Do you have any siblings?"

Sasha sighs and decides to go along with it. "Yes, two brothers."

This is the way they spend at least three more visits.

______

Sasha groaned and thunked her head down on the table. "This isn't working."

"Well, we've not done enough with it." Jon looks up from where he's writing in a notebook. "Look, I've only got surface-level information about you, it's not-"

"Why do you even care?" Sasha snapped. She wasn't sure why she'd said it now, but it had been stewing in the back of her mind for who knows how long. "You hardly even know me. And you spend all of your time to help me with this. What do you want out of this?" 

That got Jon to shut up. "At first, it was just an interest in breaking curses." He said softly. "And I _thought_ we'd become friends, so I do actually care about your well-being."

"I've been _fine._ " She wanted to yell, but it was still a library. Had to keep her volume down. "I've been fine here, and you come and decide this for me. And...are we friends? You said it yourself, you only have surface level information about me. This theory of yours could take years to prove or disprove. What are you getting out of this? You can't _honestly_ tell me you're willing to put in this much time and effort for nothing." 

Jon was silent and she couldn't quite tell what he was feeling. If he was upset....good? She had been aiming for that, sort of, but it was just because he'd been pushing this so hard and she couldn't figure out what was in it for him. If he was upfront about it, that would be fine. But it was just _this_ all the time. And it was pointless. 

"I don't really think you've been fine." He said, slowly, like talking to a frightened cat. "But if you don't want to do any more work with this, that's fine. I...I do admit, I got into it and didn't consider your opinions." He started to pack up his supplies. "I'm really very sorry if I made you...upset or uncomfortable at all. I, um. I'm sorry."

When the door closed behind him, Sasha figured out one perk of invisibility. Nobody had to see her cry.

______

Jon was back two days after their fight.

Sasha didn't want to admit it, but she felt herself light up inside when she saw him. He was just reading something and drinking a cup of tea and eating a muffin from some cafe and he kept looking up like he might see her chair pull out. It hurt, a little, but it felt sort of nice to have a routine with someone. So, she took her seat across from him.

"Sasha!" He smiled when she sat down. "I'm sorry for being away a while, I just figured you might need some space?"

"Yeah, uh. Kinda did, I guess." She admitted. "I'm sorry for getting snappy at you. I'm not great with people, honestly. It's just that you barely know me and you're doing all this to help, and it kinda sets me on edge because I don't know what you'll want in return."

Jon tilted his head quizzically. "I'm not sure if you'll believe when I say I don't want anything." He said. "I do consider us friends, and it would be interesting for me to figure this out."

"Well, I'll try to believe it." Sasha smiled. "We can just take breaks from that. Like right now, we can not think about the curse thing."

"Sounds good to me." Jon pushed the takeout bag from the cafe towards her. "Here. I'm not sure if you need to or can eat, but I figured it'd be rude to not get you something."

She didn't think it would've been, because she doesn't know if she can still eat either (certainly, she hadn't gotten hungry or died of starvation which has been nice). But she pulls out a blueberry muffin from the bag anyway. "Oh. How'd you know I liked blueberry?" 

Jon just shrugs. "I swear you mentioned it at some point. Just remembered you told me blueberry was your favorite."

Sasha feels a little warmth spread through her chest. It was nice that he remembered that. "Thank you, then." She takes a bite and chuckles at the crumbs falling on her lap. Then she registers that she can _see_ her lap, and when she looks at Jon to share this fact he's looking her in the eye and she doesn't know if she can take all this. 

"Ok, I need to go outside so I can cry very loudly." She laughs, standing up so fast her chair nearly falls over. 

Jon stands up too and holds her arm as she walks shakily to the door. "Yeah, make that two of us." 

For the first time in years, Sasha leaves the library and starts crying on the sidewalk. People give her weird looks as they pass, but it's _ok,_ it's all ok. Because they can see her crying and she's outside and Jon is here holding her hand and now she thinks she has somebody who might miss her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love love JonSasha in both a platonic and romantic way. I simply think they are very compatible! 
> 
> Tall Sasha rights. I headcanon her as 6ft and wears heels to be taller. I'm in love with her.
> 
> All the people in the library just assumed Jon had made friends with the ghost. Not the weirdest thing in the world.
> 
> Basically what I'm saying in this fic is people remembering little details about you is a powerful force and a love language


End file.
